Family of girl killed on Miami-based cruise says stepbrother has been charged, according to court document

David Goodhue, Miami Herald on Feb 24, 2026

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MIAMI — A family member of a teenage girl found dead on a Carnival Cruise ship as it headed back to Miami in November said federal prosecutors have charged the teen’s stepbrother with her homicide, according to a recently filed court document.

Cleaning staff aboard the Carnival Horizon found 18-year-old Anna Kepner’s body underneath a bed inside her stateroom on Nov. 7, a day before the ship docked at PortMiami. Kepner was on the cruise with her father, stepmother and two step-siblings, including a 16-year-old boy whom the Miami Herald previously reported is the focus of the homicide investigation.

A Feb. 3 social-media post made by a Kepner family member says the U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged the boy with Anna Kepner’s death, according to a Feb. 20 document filed in a Brevard County court. The document was filed by the attorney for the boy’s father in an ongoing custody dispute with his ex-wife, Shauntel Kepner, who was Anna’s stepmother.

The boy appeared in federal court in Miami on Friday, Feb. 6, alongside a public defender, but the charges were unknown at the time because his case remained under seal due to his age. The Feb. 20 document says the boy is charged with “the homicide of Anna Kepner.”

The Miami Herald reported this month that the boy was processed for pretrial release.

Neither the FBI nor U.S. Attorney’s Office replied to the Miami Herald’s request for comments.

The boy’s father, Thomas Hudson, is trying to get custody of his 9-year-old daughter, the son’s sister, who is living with Shauntel Kepner and Chris Kepner, Anna’s father, according to the document.

Hudson’s attorney, in the petition, states new information “has been obtained that will potentially call into question the judgment and parenting by” Shauntel and Chris Kepner. The attorney, Peter Molinelli, wrote that the Kepners and other adults on the cruise might have provided Anna and her stepbrother with alcohol and allowed the boy and Anna to sleep in the same stateroom together.

Shauntel’s attorney did not immediately respond to the Miami Herald’s request for comments on the petition.

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Anna’s cause of death was asphyxiation.

Previously filed court documents in the custody case revealed the stepbrother’s role as a suspect in Anna’s death.

One of the documents confirmed the FBI was focusing its investigation on him and also said Anna Kepner was found asphyxiated under a bed inside the room that she was sharing with the 16-year-old stepbrother on the Carnival ship. The FBI is the lead investigating agency because the crime happened on international waters.

In another document, Shauntel Kepner’s attorney argued she should not attend a custody hearing, citing her “privilege against self incrimination.” The attorney’s motion said the 16-year-old, who was not named, was released from custody and living with “a third party.”

Shauntel Kepner and Thomas Hudson divorced in February 2023 in Lee County, according to state court records. The couple also share an 18-year-old son, who was not on the cruise. Hudson claimed in one filing that his ex-wife took the two minor children on the cruise without his consent.